The AP (1/30, Freking) reports on House Committee on Veterans Affairs Jeff Miller’s (R-FL) proposal, under which veterans having trouble receiving timely mental healthcare from VA hospitals and clinics would have access to Tricare’s network of psychologists and psychiatrists, a move that “allows veterans to get care closer to home, particularly those who live in rural communities.” Miller “doesn’t have an estimated price tag yet but says that whatever it is, that’s part of the cost of war. … Even a modest increase in spending could make Miller’s proposal a tough sell at a time when Congress is focused on cutting the federal debt and dealing with the threat of [sequestration].”

Related Links:

— “Rep. looks outside VA to fill mental care gap, “Kevin Freking, The Associated Press, January 29, 2013.

USA Today (1/29, Stoller) reports, “In the third of four hearings scheduled by a legislative task force formed to prevent gun violence and improve school safety in the wake of December’s Newtown school shooting massacre,” Connecticut’s Mental Health Services Commissioner Patricia Rehmer “said risk assessments of mental-health patients are difficult and cannot be done with complete accuracy.” Jeremy Richman, whose daughter was killed at Sandy Hook, testified along with his wife. They “have started the Avielle Foundation to honor those killed on Dec. 14 and to prevent future violent acts by enhancing mental health care and ‘fostering community.'” Rehmer, “who said she was asked to address gaps in the mental health system, alternatives to outpatient commitment and mental health first aid, said the biggest gaps are for those with private insurance.”

The Wall Street Journal (1/30, A15, De Avila, Subscription Publication) notes the commission doesn’t know whether Newtown shooter Adam Lanza was ever treated for mental illness, and privacy laws suggest that the panel may never know. Testimony from Jennifer Maksel, the mother of a Sandy Hook survivor, explained that getting help from the local schools and hospital is hard when it comes to her son, who she said had Asperger’s Syndrome, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder.

Related Links:

— “Mental health experts talk about systemic issues, “Gary Stoller, USA Today, January 29, 2013.

The New York Daily News (1/29, Miller) reported that according to a new study by Canadian researchers published in Psychosomatic Medicine, gays, lesbians and bisexuals who come out about their sexuality are “less anxious, depressed and burnt out than their closeted counterparts, or even than heterosexual people of similar age.” The study examined “87 men and women of varying sexual orientations, all of whom were around 25 years old,” and found that the out participants “had lower stress hormone levels and fewer symptoms of depression than those who weren’t public about their sexuality. Out gay and bisexual men also had lower stress and depressive symptoms than heterosexual men.” The study concluded that the constant stress of hiding one’s sexuality “can cause the hormone cortisol to spike, creating inflammation in the body – which in turn has been linked to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and other chronic illness.”

NBC News (1/30, Alexander) in its “Vitals” blog reports the study’s finding “could help explain a remarkable study published last year by a group of researchers from Columbia University in the American Journal of Public Health. They found that after Massachusetts enacted its same-sex marriage law in 2003, there was a significant drop in medical and mental health care visits – and therefore costs – incurred by gay men.” The lead author of the study by McGill University and University of Montreal researchers, Robert-Paul Juster, said, “It seems to be that if you’re using more avoidance coping, and wishful thinking, then you get poorer health. If you aren’t dealing with the problem, it affects health in a negative way.”

Related Links:

— “Coming out is good for your health: Lesbians, gays, bisexuals less stressed than closeted and some hetero counterparts: study, “Tracy Miller, New York Daily News, January 29, 2013.

The Baltimore Sun (1/29, Rector) reports that as “law enforcement officials and politicians push new gun control measures, mental health providers say they feel caught in the middle and warn that some proposals would endanger their relationships with patients.” The Maryland General Assembly is presently, considering legislation, based on the state “task force’s work, to require mental health professionals to report patients who make verbal or physical threats of suicide or serious violence” and to allow law enforcement to use such “information to investigate and potentially seize” guns owned by the patients. But Dr. Paul Appelbaum, “past president of the American Psychiatric Association, said such efforts strip away the discretion of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to decide the best course of action after hearing a troubling statement from a patient.”

Related Links:

— “Psychiatrists, mental health advocates uneasy with gun policy prescriptions, “Kevin Rector, The Baltimore Sun, January 28, 2013.

Medwire (1/29, Davenport) reports, “Childhood adversity, including verbal, physical, or sexual abuse, is associated with the later development of multiple medical comorbidities in patients with bipolar disorder,” according to a study published online Jan. 18 in the Journal of Affective Disorders. The researchers from the Bipolar Collaborative Network in Bethesda, Maryland, administered questionnaires related to all types of childhood abuse, parental history of substance abuse or mood disorders, and suicidality to 904 individuals with bipolar disorder. They determined that the “most common medical conditions were allergies, migraine, headache, and head injury, which were found in 22.0%-37.2% of patients.” The results also indicated that the “prevalence of 16 medical conditions was significantly increased with increasing tCAS score, and included allergies, arthritis, asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic menstrual irregularities, fibromyalgia, head injury without loss of consciousness, hypertension, hypotension, irritable bowel syndrome and migraine headache.”

Related Links:

— “Childhood adversity raises comorbidity risk in bipolar disorder,”Liam Davenport, Medwire News, January 29, 2013.